thalassion , but which was, however, not a seaweed, but a lichen, identical probably with one of the species from which the Orchil puqde of modern art is prepared. That the celebrated “ purple ” of the ancients was amethystine or violet in hue, and not red, is directly proved by their comparing the Tyrian with the Cretan purple, the latter of which they considered the more brilliant. Herodotus tells us of the admiration of Darius for the “ scarlet cloak” [Rawlinson, x^ avL<: ™ppd— (i amiculum rutilum ” Latin translation] of Syloson, the Samian, the fiery colour of which was probably derived from Kermes, and which certainly would not have excited the cupidity of Darius had the dye of Tyre been red. From the Arabic names of the insect, kirmij , comes not only cramoisy and car m hie, but also vermeil , vermilion . The Arabs received both the insect and its name from Armenia, and kirmij is derived from quer mes, and means originally “ oak berry.” Dioscorides describes it under the name of kok/cos fiafjnKrj. Pliny says of it, u est autem genus ex eo in Attica fere et Asia [Proconsulari] nascens, celerrime in vermiculum se mutans, quod ideo solecion vocant ” [xxiv, 4]. Vermilion is the same word as vermiculum. Vermiculum y in fact, in the middle ages, signified Kermes, “ and on that account cloth dyed with them was called vermiculata,” and in England formerly “ vermilions.” The French term vermilion also originally signified Kermes, and from it was subsequently transferred to red sulphuret of mercury or cinnabar, a pigment known from the earliest times, it being mentioned by Jeremiah in his description of a house i( ceiled with cedar and painted with vermilion” [ch. xxii, 14]; and by Ezekiel [xxiii, 14], when referring to the carvings of “men portrayed upon the wall, the images of the Chaldaeans portrayed with vermilion,” which portraitures in carving and in paint have survived to our time.
Textile fabrics frequently take their names from the place where they first acquired excellence, and retain them long after the local manufacture has been transferred elsewhere, and sometimes
